Neil Mitchell targeting a push for safety
Neil Mitchell has called on Stourbridge to banish any lingering fears of the drop over the next two weekends.
The director of rugby is urging his team to build on Saturday’s “magnificent” 7-3 home win over National Two North leaders Hull Ionians, a result which kept them 12 points ahead of South Leicester, who occupy the third and final relegation spot.
Stour, who sit ninth in the table, visit South Leicester on February 9, after a testing trip to 11th-placed Wharfedale this weekend.
Mitchell said: “These next two Saturdays will define our season. If we go well, then we will be pretty much sitting pretty.
“If things go badly we will put pressure on ourselves and could end up looking nervously over our shoulders. This is an opportunity to put any remaining worries to bed.”
Mitchell knows getting a positive result against a Wharfedale team notoriously strong at their North Yorkshire home during winter.
He continued: “The pitch is on a big slope and they draw a decent crowd which makes it a hostile environment.
“Add to the fact the players feel like they have been a rollercoaster when they get there, as it is up and down dale all the way, and you can begin to understand why so many teams find it tough.”
Stour will at least be heading into the game in confident mood after downing Hull at Stourton Park in sensational fashion.
The victory was remarkable on several levels, not least because of the paltry number of points scored by two of the division’s most potent attacks.
That owed much to the superb effort of Stour’s much-maligned defence, who limited the visitors to just a penalty after Toni Kuku had scored the only try of the game on eight minutes.
Hull had the ball in Stour half for an incredible 36 minutes during the second half.
Yet the hosts, who were forced into a late reshuffle scrum-half Adam Shaw quit the sport on the eve of the game, held firm for their finest result of the season to date.
Mitchell said: “It was one heck of a response from the players.
“For everyone has been panning us and saying it is all crashing down at Stourbridge, there was the answer.
“I know 7-3 does not sound like the most exciting scoreline but everyone who was at Stourton Park on Saturday was transfixed by it, none more so than me.
“Against the best side in the league, we just did not allow them to play. Bearing in mind how much our defence has struggled this season, it was a superb effort.
“It was just incredible. People stepped off the line and put in some big hits.”
